Sanitizing Fresh Water tank

[Jimbo56]

Well let me just beat this dead horse one more time. I’ve lived on a farm with a well for 20+ years. Every 2 to 3 years I have the water tested. The lab mgr, who is a friend of mine, who has a chemistry degree, says most wells in my area have a much lower level of impurities than the River water being consumed by the Townees. I drink my well water straight from the spigot up at the barn if needed. I use it to fill my freshwater tank in the rv. I drink it. I bathe with it. I empty fresh water and hot water after each trip. I also swam in the Kanawha River in WV as a teen. Downstream from the DuPont plant. Do as you wish with your fresh water tank, but no way am I putting any of the stuff mentioned in this thread in my tank to be ingested into me.

[HMCSW]

Originally Posted by erikdjensen

When I was in the Navy and we suspected our watr tanks were contaminated - filled our tanks in Egypt or Dijibuti we would make a slurry solution of sodium hypochlorite. This come from the Navy preventive medicine manual P-505010. I wouldn't think of using anything else than chlorine, but that is me.

With you brother- fleet and Marine Water Buffalos. Can’t imagine why bother going through the vinegar process. .

[Pabs4]

Originally Posted by Sandersonh

would prefer to use vinegar over bleach. Less toxic,

I found an article that says the vinegar has to be heated to 130° in order to kill the same bacteria bleach kills. We have always used bleach.

https://crowsurvival.com/how-to-clea...-with-vinegar/

[16ACE27]

Originally Posted by Pabs4

I found an article that says the vinegar has to be heated to 130° in order to kill the same bacteria bleach kills. We have always used bleach.

https://crowsurvival.com/how-to-clea...-with-vinegar/

Coulda found that in post #4 IN THIS THREAD.

[Chateau_Nomad]

Originally Posted by Jimbo56

Well let me just beat this dead horse one more time. I’ve lived on a farm with a well for 20+ years. Every 2 to 3 years I have the water tested. The lab mgr, who is a friend of mine, who has a chemistry degree, says most wells in my area have a much lower level of impurities than the River water being consumed by the Townees. I drink my well water straight from the spigot up at the barn if needed. I use it to fill my freshwater tank in the rv. I drink it. I bathe with it. I empty fresh water and hot water after each trip. I also swam in the Kanawha River in WV as a teen. Downstream from the DuPont plant. Do as you wish with your fresh water tank, but no way am I putting any of the stuff mentioned in this thread in my tank to be ingested into me.

I grew up just north of an infamous Dupont plant on the Ohio river. Fortunately I believe most of the water I drank as a kid was sourced upstream. The dumping in my hometown area in the 1960s and 1970s also contaminated untold volumes of underground aquifers supplying water wells throughout the area. Fortunately, the dumping was discovered and stopped, but not before the contaminated water was consumed by MANY people in the area. Those chemicals are likely permanent fixtures in those aquifers.

Renal cancer killed my only brother in 2019... at a relatively young age of 65. I have every reason to believe the root source was from consuming well water in his early 20s, when he lived less than a mile from a primary dump site in Washington WV - which has been highly publicized.

Sometimes the actions in our youth do not manifest until we get much older. Our "bullet proof" younger years often come back to haunt us in later years when we least expect. Be careful out there.

[lwmcguir]

Water quality has gone down ever since we started drilling wells into aquifers and building any type of industrial plant/factory/mega farm

That is just the nature of it, and it was poorly managed for many years resulting in many issues that still persist today.

City water bumps up against the limits on many contaminants and they have to blend to stay below reportable quantities.

If your immune system is challenged, you should be very careful as to your source of drinking water.

Several of our wells are nearing the bottom of the usable water table due to irrigation wells in the area. As the water table has dropped our TDS and all the anions and cations have increased, especially Nitrate.

We use RO water for drinking and maintain them properly.

Back in the day we all drank out of the hose, but today you need to know what really is in that water. if it is from a municipal source, it most likely meets the minimum requirements and is chlorinated and tested for Coliform.

I use our freshwater tanks for coffee and of course bathrooms and dish washing and showering. Drinking water very rarely unless we have filled it from a known source that we trust.

Several states don't require water testing if there are less than 25 people on a given system. Other states have different numbers, but it leaves quite a bit of well water available that may not be tested.

Quick story

Out in Colorado the Government County Agent called on a farmer and noted his septic system was below and close to his well. He told him to move it and he would be back to check. When he came back to check the farmer was mad and said his well ran dry after moving it.

In case you're wondering the typical distance if a minimum of 100 feet unless you're in sandy soil.

Anyway, the thread lives on and still no Duck

[Chateau_Nomad]

I trust our current municipal water, but we've used RO for 35 years for drinking/cooking. I've looked at installing RO in the motorhome, but with 6 months storage it's not worth it. So we just go with a Berkey and hope for the best.

So tying that in with tank sanitizing... Since we only use the water for washing, sanitizing is important, but not as critical as for drinking water.

[10scDust]

We plan according to the cautious side. We use the fresh water tank water for everything except consuming!
That means no cooking with it, nor drinking any of it.
We either bring water in water coolers for that use, or buy bottled water, for cooking, coffee making, drinking, even our pets water.
We take heed to the old saying: It's a nice place to visit, just don't drink the water!
To each their own, but once we depart, we are full of our own well water and act accordingly, but once we hook up, or refill on the road, all bets are off.

Needless to say, we do not sanitize our FW tank because we never introduce foreign waters into our system...yet that is.

I will say, if you are having a sanitary problem, or the odor from the tank is terrible. You do have to do something.

To each their own. And like Bob claims: "What? Me worry?"


edit: Sometimes I wonder if folks have way too much time, and/or money on their hands to be worrying about trivial things such as "Let's get thirty gallons of vinegar, white vinegar to be sure, and boil it up and put it into the FW tank. Grab the transmission funnel! Then make sure you drive around to get it all sloshed up real good (find a gravel road), then drain it out to the ground. (how good is that for your immediate environment?).

Even so, chlorine bleach was limited on how much you could buy just not that long ago, so much so, that they are now in smaller containers. (But we don't notice these things)

I know, I have an iron removal system that uses bleach as the catalyst in removing the iron from my home water treatment system. It uses about 28 gallons of bleach with twice the water, when it needs recharged, and with the recent pandemic scare (I say faux, but strictly my opinion), they would not let you buy any more than 5 at a time. Then they are like 7/8 of gallon jugs. Like I said, even smaller now. I digress...

[Pabs4]

Originally Posted by 16ACE27

Coulda found that in post #4 IN THIS THREAD.

Sorry! The email notification just came through today, and I’m old and tired. Please forgive me

Pam

[Redsand]

Help me out here. What was this post all about? Seems like something about horses or salad dressings?